Various systems are presently known for cooking food, such as chicken parts, in a hot liquefied cooking medium, such as fat or shortening, as set forth in U.S. Pats. Sanders No. 3,245,800, Keathley No. 3,431,834, Angold No. 3,431,835 and Pelster et al. No. 3,608,472. As disclosed in the last-mentioned patent, one known system of this type includes a pressurized cooking chamber served by a supply of liquefied cooking medium which is heated by electrical heaters responsively to a thermostat in the medium.
The supply of no more than the amount of heat needed at any given time to maintain a preselected constant temperature in cooking systems has advantage not only in conforming heating to that required for quality control of the cooked product but also in conserving energy and in prolonging the life of heaters and the heating medium. Thus, the cycling of heaters full on and full off a number of times during the cooking cycle, as occurs with simple thermostat controllers, loosens quality control limits and tends to increase carbon accumulation on the heaters, in turn deteriorating the cooking medium.